The ruling in New York came just a few weeks before borough officials in Freehold, in Monmouth County, settled a three-year-old federal lawsuit filed by day laborers.

In Freehold, borough officials settled a three-year-old lawsuit by agreeing to stop fining laborers for seeking work in public.

In Freehold, N.J., last week, advocates for immigrants hailed the settlement of a three-year-old lawsuit sparked by similar mistreatment.

The three-year-old lawsuit sought up to $10,000 each for as many as 30,000 Hungarian Jews and their survivors.

The ruling does not spell the end of the three-year-old lawsuit filed by the graduate student, Renee M. Smith.

A three-year-old lawsuit against several California supermarkets asserts that the supermarkets and their cleaning subcontractors violated minimum wage and overtime laws in using illegal immigrants to clean their floors.

Judge Charles P. Sifton of Federal District Court in Brooklyn ruled in a three-year-old lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmental and arms-control groups.

Ending a bitter three-year-old private lawsuit, Microsoft and Bristol Technology Inc. today agreed to a confidential settlement of a dispute over antitrust and unfair trade practices.

Shares of both Comdisco and I.B.M. rose after the companies said they had settled a three-year-old lawsuit.

The Federal Government has agreed to halt all proceedings in its three-year-old lawsuit against Florida over pollution in the Everglades, raising hopes for an eventual settlement.